Movie #245 The Big Sleep *1946*

Here are my 3 Reasons for The Big Sleep:

Reason #1.  It's Bogey and Bacall, need I say more?

Reason #2. It is another great Raymond Chandler / Phillip Marlowe story brought to the big screen.

Reason #3. Howard Hawks dialogue in the first 10 minutes between Bogey and Charles Waldron.

I give The Big Sleep ★★★1/2.

Movie #219 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes *1953*

Marilyn Monroe - Lorelei Lee
Jane Russell - Dorothy Shaw
Elliott Reed - Malone
Howard Hawks (Director)

I might be the first person to ever make this claim, but Marilyn Monroe is sexy as all get out.  That's a bold statement I know, but I feel like her breakout performance was in this raunchy musical.  The film is about two women that set sail to France.  One (Marilyn) is a gold digger and the other (Russell) is a tramp to be blunt.  The two of them sail to France, along with the men's Olympic team [what a coincidence].  The bill for this trip is picked up by Monroe's lover.  He is supposed to marry her in Paris but his father won't let him marry her due to her money hungry ways.

The father hires a private dick to follow the girls on the trip to see if Monroe will behave herself or fall for the first guy that flashes a $100 bill in front of her eyes.  She does of course.  She flirts heavily with a married diamond tycoon and gets him to give her a tiara that belongs to his wife.  Russell is there to watch her friend and make sure that she doesn't get into any trouble.  But then she falls for Malone before finding out what he does for a living.  Of course all sort of antics happen and hilarity ensues.

I was amazed at how filthy this script was.  I know this film was made during the Hayes code and they had to insinuate the sex and imply and use suggestive language.  But man, this film was near perverted both in script and in costumes.  Example: During one of the musical number Russell was singing while the Olympic athletes worked out in flesh colored short shorts.  Both Monroe and Russell spent the majority in outfits that made their waists thinner than their wrists and made their boobs stick out like torpedoes.  I'm not complaining, but I have seen more subtly in soft core porn.  There is another musical number in a Parisian cafe where Monroe dances around.  This may have been the beginning of modern stripping.  The only thing missing from a dance like that is a pole.  I swear I have been to a gentleman's club or two where there girls dance mimicked Monroe's all the way down to the hair tease.

I should mention that I thought Monroe was a far better actor in this film than Russell, who was considered more of a serious actor.  The man who played Malone did a good job too.  He reminded me a lot of a young Jimmy Stewart.  Both in personality and in his voice and tone.  I would rank this as one of Hawks minor films, but it is a solid movie and worth the time.  There is a great line in the movie: "I want you to find happiness and stop having fun".  This is a fun movie.  I give Gentlemen Prefer Blonde's ★★★.

Movie #105 His Girl Friday *1940*

His Girl Friday is a movie staring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell as a divorced couple.  He the editor of a newspaper and her a former reporter for that paper.  At the start of the movie Russell (Hildy) informs Grant (Walter) that is planing to marry the sweet and simple insurance salesman Bruce, played by Ralph Bellamy.  Walter then puts all his resources to making sure that doesn't happen.  It is unclear if he still possess true feelings for her, or if in the cut-throat world of newspaper journalism, he doesn't want to loose his best writer.

This movie is written in a rapid paced vernacular that is often imitated but rarely duplicated.  The banter between Grant and Russell has no equal in my opinion.  It is zinger after zinger.  It's not just the pace of the speech either.  It is what is being said.  They reveal their true feeling for each other thought flirty side comments and almost hidden cue's.

Another reason this is a great film is the way it represents journalism, particularly in the 30's and 40's.  I mentioned before that it is cut-throat, that statement is not to be taken lightly.  You get a feeling that some of these reporters would literally sell their mothers for the scoop.  As a matter of fact Hildy allows her fiance to be incarcerated 3 times during the course of the movie as well as allowing her would be mother-in-law to be kidnapped.  All this for the story.  It reminded me a lot of what celebrities, athletes and politicians go through both professionally and personally.

This movie is directed by the great Howard Hawks.  It has a few visual flourishes, but for the most part Hawks stays out of the way and lets Grants charm, Grant and Russell's chemistry and a wonderful script do the talking for this movie.  I give His Girl Friday a 4.5/5 stars.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.